The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst or UMass) is a public research and land-grant university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system, as well as the largest and most comprehensive campus within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. With 5,871 faculty members and over 31,000 students, UMass is also the third-largest employer in western Massachusetts after Springfield’s Baystate Health and Holyoke’s PeoplesBank. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, UMASS Amherst today includes nine schools and colleges that together offer bachelor’s degrees to over 21,000 undergraduates, master’s degrees to about 4,000 graduate students, 77 doctoral programs to more than 3,000 doctoral candidates, and more than 300 certificate programs. The main campus sits on 1,450 acres (5.9 km2) in a rural setting bordering Hadley—a town with a long history of agriculture—and Northampton—a vibrant college town known for its thriving arts scene.:1–4 The University borders several other large research institutions including Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, Hampshire College, and the Five Colleges Consortium which includes Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College and Smith College.:110
UMass Amherst has consistently been ranked among the top public research universities in various national rankings. In 2019 alone it was ranked 40th overall by U.S. News & World Report 41st by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance 42nd by Washington Monthly, 85th by Forbes,, and 107th by Money Magazine.. It was also recently named one of GreenMetric World Universities’ top 150 worldwide “green” campuses for its sustainability efforts.. On September 1st 2020 it was announced that UMass would be joining forces with Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center to form a new medical school set to open in July 2021.(this will make it only 1 of 4 public Ivy League med schools).:3 In addition to this recent merger announcement UMass has had several notable partnerships including:
* A partnership with Philips Healthcare resulting in a $20 million dollar advanced manufacturing center on campus :3
* A partnership with Monsanto resulting in a $25 million dollar life sciences research laboratory :11
* A partnership with Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. worth $32 million dollars for drug discovery initiatives :4
The university consists of five distinct campuses:Amherst Campus which is the flagship campus; Boston Campus; Dartmouth Campus; Lowell Campus; Worcester Campus. With satellite locations across the state there are currently eleven total campuses enrolling over 74 thousand students annually from 147 different countries making it one of the most diverse public university systems not only in New England but also nationwide.